Wood Frog

The wood frog is a frog species with a broad distribution across North America, ranging from the boreal forest of the north to the southern Appalachians, with several notable disjunct populations including one in lowland eastern North Carolina; it is the only North American frog species found north of the Arctic Circle. It has drawn particular attention from biologists for its freeze tolerance, its relatively terrestrial lifestyle for a true frog, its distinctive habitat associations including peat bogs, vernal pools and uplands, and its comparatively long-range movements. Because it is often considered an obligate breeder in the ephemeral wetlands known as vernal pools, which are themselves more threatened than the species that depend on them, the wood frog's ecology and conservation have drawn growing research attention in recent years, and it has been proposed as the official state amphibian of New York.